Kiir is a “Constitutional President,” not a “Democratically Elected President!”

Most of us in South Sudan are not independent thinkers even when we pretend we are! Some South Sudanese writers and thinkers in Southern States of the country support Federalism not because they’ve actually looked into the inherent benefits to the constituents of the region but because the majority of the citizens embrace it given their flimsy understanding of the system, or because vocal voices in their areas support it, or that, they believe, it’ll give them an opportunity to get rid of the ‘occupiers’ on their land.

None of the supporters of Federalism has ever advanced any convincing reason that’s not either reminiscent of the infamous 1980s ‘Kokora’ or the regionalized tribalism and regionalist sycophancy.

States have governors, parliaments, state MPs, State laws. We somehow have a system that’s structurally resembling other Federal Systems in the world. What is lacking is to actually give more powers to the states and limiting president’s interference in state affairs.

And those who oppose Federalism do so because they support the government and the government opposes it. And the government has absolutely no credible reason advanced in opposition to the system and why they think Federalism would be bad.

The only reason they have is that Riek has rekindled the flame of Federalism. This is not the first time Riek has done something like this. Riek feeds on popular aspirations of the people and exploits them.

Self-determination wasn’t a darling of the SPLA/SPLM until Dr. Riek and Dr. Lam made it their focal point in Abuja I in 1992. It was only one of the alternatives in Dr. John’s famous multi-layered Vend Diagrams but not the preferred alternative. UNITY of Sudan was!

The two doctors wanted to outsmart Dr. John Garang. However, the way Dr. John changed astonished not only the doctors, but Garang’s friends in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Garang embraced Self-Determination to the chagrin of the Nasir duo and even made it central to Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA); giving birth to Referendum!

Riek and Lam had met an ideological propagandists, ideological chameleon, and also, an ideological wizard who couldn’t be outsmarted.

So folks who oppose Federalism are doing so because people they support don’t like it. They’ve not presented any convincing reason why they oppose it.

This is our major problem. We ally based on irrational positions we hide in ideological, tribalized regionalism and intellectualized tribalism. We don’t think for ourselves!

That’s why we hear time and again from South Sudanese officials and government supporters that President Salva Kiir Mayardit is a “democratically elected president” of South Sudan!

No! President Kiir was a democratically elected president of the government of ‘Southern Sudan.’ He’s a CONSTITUTIONAL President of the Republic of South Sudan. There was no election held after the independence of South Sudan! None!

We hear from many government officials that President Kiir is the legitimate president of South Sudan because he’s the democratically elected president. Yes, he’s the legitimate president of South Sudan because the Transitional Constitution (2011) says so not because he’s elected.

Chapter II, Article 97 (3) of the Transitional constitution states: “The incumbent elected President of the Government of Southern Sudan shall be the President of the Republic of South Sudan.”

It says elected president of ‘Government of Southern Sudan.’ It doesn’t say elected ‘President of the Republic of South Sudan.’

Article 100 states: “The tenure of the office of the President of the Republic of South Sudan shall be four years, commencing from July 9, 2011.”

What makes the president Legitimate in the Republic of South Sudan is because the constitution says so not because he is elected in an independent South Sudan.

Note that the president tenure is not being counted from the time the president was elected (2010). It’s starting from the independence of the Nation, January 9, 2011.

So it’s utterly wrong to say that President Kiir is a ‘democratically elected president!’ President Kiir’s current legitimacy started on July 9, 2011. Unless I’ve been sleeping between 2011 and 2013 and that a National Election was held then!

Kuir ë Garang is a South Sudanese author and poet living in Canada. For more information, visit www.kuirthiy.info or www.youtube.com/kuirthiytv

15 Comments

Kuir
This is why we call you dinkas narrow minded. In your opening paragraph, why are you beating around the bush? Why not say it out that you are referring to Equatorians? When you said: “the majority of the citizens embrace it (federalism) given their flimsy understanding of the (federal) system, or because vocal voices in their areas support it, or that, they believe, it’ll give them an opportunity to get rid of the ‘occupiers’ (dinkas) on their land.”
Kuir, I have read your articles many times, all of them don’t bring any new ideas nor make sense. You are just a bigot and a diehard Borian with no futuristic vision, same old same all songs of KOKORA.
You dinkas are suffering from a disease called POST REJECTION TRAUMATIC SYNDROM, this disease cannot be cured by seeking attentions or your zeal to be accepted and embraced by the Equatorians.
Why can’t you get it? Is there anything difficult in accepting the truth; that EQUATORIANS DON’T NEED DINKAS, AND PERIOD END OF STORY. Pack and go home from Canada to Jongole or Bahr Ghazal or Upper Nile not to Equatoria. Whether you like it or not Equatorians will fight until we get rid of dinkas. With or without Federalism we will succeed.
Eli
SSNLF

Eli,
Getting rid of Dinka is easy said than done, look; anywhere in South Sudan was liberated by Dinka including equatoria, therefore if you don’t like Dinka; then you can pack-up and go to Uganda or Congo; because those are the countries with your ancestry origin. It’s as simple as that! Dinka leaving certain areas in South Sudan is just your day-dream!

Eli, are you talking out of your senses? Think well before you write such unbecoming piece. Be realistic. Which battle was fought and won by dinka in exclusion of other southern tribes? Be serious Eli.

Wani Lo Gale
I did not say any war was won by dinka alone, maybe you confused me with Makol who is responding to my reply to Kuir. Notice in every heading the names of those replying ‘re above and the following names are of those replied to bellow the reply. For example, in the above Makol addresses me as Eli, which is commonly used to get my attention. Of all the people, I am one of the first to dispute dinkas’claim to liberate South Sudan, in fact I am calling for independence of Equatorian militarization, if we are well armed then our call for federal system shall be taken seriously.
Some one might argue that yes we have many Equatorians carrying guns as of now so we should let those Equatorians carrying guns in the SPLA do the job. The answer is NO, as long as those Equatorians are under SPLA they are just being used to carry on the mandates and objectives of the Dinkas.
GRECOR has made it crystal clear, ” it is time for Equatorians to become our own masters, we have to take it, not beg for it”.

AN INDEPENDENT EQUATORIAN MILITARIZATION IS A MUST. NO MORE PEACEFUL DISCUSSIONS, BUT BOTH BY GUNS AND DISCUSSIONS.

“Wherever there is a will there is a way” and for sure there are wills.

We should NOT CONFUSE MORAL VALUES WITH POLITICAL CORRECTNESS; DINKAS ARE HERE TO REPLACE OUR VALUES WITH THEIRS. We believe in A Holy God, the God of Ibraham, Isaac and Israel, they believe in Cows, called Animism and Paganism.
Believe it or not, we resisted Islamization, and now we have to resist Animalisation.

One other thing I should mention, there are those in Equatoria who misunderstood the Bible that ” turn the other cheek to be slapped” means we should allow ignorance to dictate our status. No, but the bible also said; “Resist the devil and the devil will flee “yes the majority of Equatorians practice Christianity , that’s why when the media say; “southerners and both Christians and Animists, they in fact meant exactly that, so should we majority Christians allow minority Animists contaminate our Biblically orientated heritage? The answer in Big NO.
How could we Christians fought the Arab Muslims to preserve our Christian faith in the South only to be replaced by Animism? If we allow that to happen then we are very hypocritices and for sure we are not hypocrites.
Therefore, our God of the Bible s stronger than their gods of Paganism.
“LET GOD ARISE AND HIS ENEMIES FLEE”
Believing in God doesn’t mean you are weak or coward as portrayed by our enemies, but rather God gives Wisdom, and wisdom defeats foolishness. If you don’t think so read the Old Testament, how God helped the nation of Israel to exist to this date, and the Israelites are the most powerful in military might in the Middle East believe it or not. That’s the only way they survived being annihilated by the Arabs.

So, ” with God all things are possible” my God is A Living God, the God of King David will be on my side until I defeat his enemies the Pagans.
Kirr is the leader of the Paganism, he went to Nigeria to be innitiated into cultism and then in pretext he attended mass at Kator Cathedral the night before he butchered the Nuers innocent as sucrificial blood offering to his gods. Even the devil can pretent to be an angel of light. Satan requested for more blood and now he will try to butcher the benevolent and heroic armless Equatorians, but God will stop him by death, just as he stopped, John Garang.

WARNING
Kirr you better listen to your fellow Bahr Ghazalian wisdom to step down before he meets his fate.

Makol
You will always remain dinkas, you are sick and confused with identity conflict. You said we belong to Uganda or East Africa, or Congo, sure we don’t deny that we are partially same people, however you dinkas should go to Khartoum were you originally ran from the Jalaba, John Garang tried to open your eyes so you understand your history but like cows you are too dumb to understand. Equatoria belongs to Equatorians, and we will get every inch of our lands back soon or later by force or with whatever means it takes.

It is good to philosophize and play words-games for entertainment purposes but not really for being practical and realistic. To reconcile “constitutional president” with “elected president” we need to ask a question of basics: Why did Southern Sudanese representatives come to a consensus that Salva Kiir has to be the constitutional president of transitional period? The strong reason was that, given the choices, Kiir had the record of being selected by the SPLM ruling party (in accordance with leadership hierarchy) to be the President of GoSS in 2005 after the vacuum left by the untimely death of Dr. Garang, and also he was elected by the people of Southern Sudan for the GoSS in 2010. Therefore, his being elected played a role of his being chosen as the constitutional. Otherwise, someone else (un-elected) would have been chosen to become the constitutional president of the RSS. This would have risen an affordable commotion by then. Hence, any attempt to separate the “elected” and “constitutional” regarding the current situation of Salva Kiir will be like making sense of two bald men fighting over a comb.

Kuir, the fact that you know you are occupiers of people’s land is a good reason to call for federalism. You can call it kokora, fine. Just continue with your wrong intentions. It will be all against dinkas. Put this at the back of your mind. There is person from G.E who will ever think of transferring to your areas due to your unruly life style. Know this very well.
” A cat is a coward in an open ground but brave when it has no chance of escape”.

“none of the supporters of Federalism has ever advanced any convincing reason that’s not either reminiscent of the infamous 1980s ‘Kokora’ or the regionalized tribalism and regionalist sycophancy.”

Brother Kuir, so your understanding of Federalism is that we, it’s supporters , are seeking Kokora and tribalism! Really!
The notion that a support for Federalism means a support for tribalism by extension is insane and silly. I hope you are not serious!!!

Calling the author of this article “narrow minded” just simply confirms the writer’s first statement in this article. Not acknowledging the truth, regardless of who says it, is another of the countless problems we have in South Sudan. we oppose out of biased intentions and not rationality. Let’s better appreciate our writers who are independent thinkers rather than playing down the substance in their writings.
Great article, Kuir.

Dr James Okuk,
When did SPLM DC believe that Kiir was legimately elected by people of South Sudan?I got the answer,after giving Dr Akol amnesty and accomodating all of you in Hotels he became elected president forgetting your case in court challenging his election.

Wani lgale which land is occupied? and who occupied it?
The land belong to coomunity and it is community who is giving land for development and i dont believed you are a real Bari becuz Bari are comfortable with the goverment policy of talking to Bari if they need land for development

I have been on every diet out there for over 20 years. argh. I believe if I had never sttraed that yoyo, I would just be fine. This madness of taking food groups out is crazy, but I did it for the longest time. I believe eating WHOLE, REAL food is the key. I grind my grains, will be growing my own veggies and some fruits this summer, and just got a cow and goat. Fresh, raw, milk is going to be great when my cow has her baby. Good post and comments.